FOREIGN DRAMA ON THE ENGLISH AND 

 AMERICAN STAGE 



I. FRENCH DRAMA 

 By Charles C. Ayer 



The object of the present paper is to trace the course of the French 

 drama on the English and American stage, as it appears to us in trans- 

 lations and adaptations. Most Americans at the present day enjoy the 

 theater and derive a keen pleasure from watching a good play from a 

 comfortable seat of a modern theater, but not all, in the excitement of 

 the moment, are interested in the origin of the play. "The play's the 

 thing," and if it be a good one in the popular sense, it is pleasantly 

 remembered in the form in which it was presented. Nevertheless it 

 may have traveled far and undergone many changes, since it left its 

 original author's pen. The programs of the present day, even in 

 university towns, often omit the name of the author as being of no 

 consequence, though to the enthusiastic playgoer and student of the 

 drama, the name of the author is often what induces him to go to see 

 the play. Indeed, the author's name and the nationality of a play are 

 of prime importance to him. If these two elements are lost sight of, 

 we cannot follow any play with full intelligence. Nor can we realize the 

 great debt which we owe to foreign nations and especially to France 

 as one of the foremost purveyors to the theater. Nevertheless, some of 

 the best-known plays on the American stage are of French origin. Let 

 us see how and when they came into existence. 



The theater in France, as every student knows, originated as it did 

 elsewhere, in the church. During the Middle Ages the serious drama 

 was represented in the form of miracles, mysteries and moralities, the 

 purpose being religious, ethical and didactic. The comic drama was 

 represented by moralities, farces and sotties, and produced by the 

 guilds of the times, amateur associations of artisans. But with the 

 dramatic output of France in the Middle Ages we have nothing to do 

 from the present point of view, though we come very near to the spirit 



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